As it turns out, Activision is well aware of this issue and it’s one of the reasons why Warzone doesn’t have as many maps as fans would like. According to the live operations lead at Raven Software, John Bridge, Warzone won’t be getting any maps soon.
Bridge couldn’t help but put things bluntly in the TeeP interview, saying that the “install and reinstall sizes are f****ng crazy.”, explaining that the file size is one of the reasons why the studio has had to get creative with the game’s map rotations. He added that the developers’ way of dealing with map fatigue was to revamp Rebirth Island because a huge chunk of the player base is still stuck playing Warzone on last-gen consoles with fairly limited and slow storage. It doesn’t help that even the PS5 has less than 700GB of usable storage out of the box. TLDR; Warzone’s current file size is the best that Raven can do at the moment. Furthermore, Bridge revealed that Warzone is using technology that was never designed for large-scale combat, hinting that the massive content that’s already available in Warzone is a huge problem that Activision still hasn’t solved. He also admitted that Warzone bleeds players whenever they add a new update and this is an ongoing problem. While Bridge’s statements do sound bleak for the future of Warzone, he did assure fans that the goal is to introduce more maps into Warzone’s rotation even if current technology limits this from happening. One way of interpreting this is that Bridge is talking about Warzone 2. Specifically, how the game can cater to more content because it will use technology specifically designed to take advantage of what the current-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X can do. Three years is a long time to support this sort of game. Even if other battle royale shooters have been on the market for just as long if not longer, you have to consider how Activision never designed Warzone’s engine for what it has become. Bridge’s revelations, although not surprising, are deeply insightful and give us a better look at how a large publisher like Activision can continue to have such problems despite throwing multiple studios at Warzone. Speaking of Call of Duty, Activision opened March by confirming that it is working on a mobile version of Call of Duty: Warzone. Some are speculating that this is Activision’s way of mitigating the sting of dropping support for Warzone once Warzone 2 arrives next year. In addition, a leaker recently mentioned that the Nintendo Switch could get a port of Modern Warfare Remastered while an interesting job listing from Activision suggests that it’s looking into introducing a subscription service for Call of Duty going forward.
